When you go back and study bull markets and all the healthiest environments for stocks throughout the past, do you know what you'll find?

Historically, Consumer Staples stocks underperform during the healthiest market environments.

So with that in mind, notice how Consumer Staples on an equally-weighted basis just closed at NEW ALL-TIME LOWS relative to the equally-weighted S&P500:

What happens if you can't exit a position on your brokerage platform?

Do you sit and wait it out, hoping for a quick resolution and an opportunity to exit at your price, or better?

Has that ever worked out for you?

I'm fairly certain that has nearly never worked out for me. If it has, it certainly didn't compensate me for all the times it hasn't. Not financially, and certainly not emotionally.

There's a certain panic that sets in when we lose the ability to take control when we need to. We can't control the markets, but we can control how we react to them. We can choose to take action when we need to.

Except when we can't.

Your broker has a glitch, the platform is down, and nobody will take your calls because their customer service lines are being bombarded by traders just like you who are stuck in positions, looking for a quick exit.

This is a pretty powerless feeling.

Last week, we discussed China and Gold futures as potential catalysts for resolving a multi-decade basing pattern in Dr. Copper.

If we're in an environment where Copper futures are printing fresh all-time highs, then we should spend some time identifying opportunities in the equities market that benefit from rising base and industrial metal prices globally.

Over the last 6-months, the Steel $SLX, Copper $COPX, and Metals and Mining $XME ETFs have underperformed the S&P 500:

As an owner of a gas-guzzling SUV, I don't like the prospect of higher oil prices. 

Nobody enjoys paying more at the pump. It's an unavoidable tax and if it gets too high, it can be a real drag on people's finances, and can even spill over into broader consumer spending.

And it certainly can be an inflationary signal for all things we spend money on.

That said, in a small way, I'm going to look to hedge myself against gas inflation by getting involved in a popular filling station operator that will ease my mind if I keep paying more to drive my car.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our Hall of Famers list is composed of the 150 largest US-based stocks.

These stocks range from the mega-cap growth behemoths like Apple and Microsoft – with market caps in excess of $2T – to some of the new-age large-cap disruptors such as Moderna, Square, and Snap.

It has all the big names and more.

It doesn’t include ADRs or any stock not domiciled in the US. But don’t worry; we developed a separate universe for that. Click here to check it out.

The Hall of Famers is simple.

We take our list of 150 names and then apply our technical filters so the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.

Let’s dive right in and check out what these big boys are up to.

Here’s this week’s list:

In today’s Daily Digest, we’ll review the following:

1. No new positions today.
2. Adjustment to XLE position.
3. No positions were exited since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!

For the longest time I have been virtually out of the market.

Apart from a number of setups, my exposure has been rather light.

But this is the first time in a while I'm increasing my exposure.

Time to get on board.

During today's trades review (in the video above), I discussed how I'm still of the mind to be hunting for opportunities to be bullishly aggressive.

However, the current volatility environment is also offering us spots to add some delta-neutral credit spreads with better-than-average odds of success. I like doing this, if for no other reason than to add some portfolio diversification.

And I demonstrate one way in which I manage open call calendar spreads to manage my risks and give me a better shot at large gains.

All this and the usual stop updates for existing positions.

Enjoy!

In today’s Daily Digest, we’ll review the following:

1. No new positions today.
2. Rolling XOP to November options.
3. No positions were exited since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

We love our bottoms-up scans here at All Star Charts. We tend to get really creative when making new universes as we want to be sure they will deliver us the best opportunities the market has to offer.

However, when it comes to this one, it couldn't be any simpler!

With the goal of finding more bullish setups, we have decided to expand one of our favorite scans and broaden our regular coverage of the largest US stocks.

Welcome to The Junior Hall of Famers.

This scan is composed of the next 150 largest stocks by market cap, those that come after the top 150 and are thus covered by the Hall of Famers universe. Many of these names will someday graduate and join our original Hall Of Famers list. The idea here is to catch these big trends as early on as possible.

There is no need to overcomplicate things. Market cap is a quality filter at the end of the day. It only grows if price is rising. That's good enough for us.

The underperformance out of Technology stocks this year continues to hurt investors who haven't been paying attention to the sector rotation.

Things haven't been getting better for Tech, they've only been getting worse.

With record returns for stocks in Q3, for example, Large-cap Technology was actually down last quarter.

Small-cap Technology is somehow still down for the entire year!

The struggle is real.

But all the major indexes keep hitting new all-time highs every month. 

This is the recording and the chartbook from our October 2024 Monthly Candlesticks Strategy Session.